Ambati Rayudu retires from international cricket

India batsman Ambati Rayudu on Wednesday announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect. Rayudu will continue to play in the Indian Premier League.

Rayudu was not included in India's original 15-member squad for the World Cup 2019 and all-rounder Vijay Shankar was preferred over him.

Chief selector MSK Prasad had stated that Shankar's 3-dimensional qualities made them pick him over Rayudu, who wasn't too happy with the decision.

But then the injuries to opener Shikhar Dhawan and Shankar left the door open for the selectors to pick Rayudu as a possible replacement. Rayudu was even in the standbys list along with Rishabh Pant for the World Cup.

The BCCI selectors however, decided to send Rishabh Pant as a replacement for Dhawan (thumb fracture) and Mayank Agarwal for Shankar, who injured his toe during practice. These could have been the reasons behind Rayudu's immediate retirement, even though the cricketer himself hasn't stated any reasons for the decision yet.

Rayudu has played 55 ODIs for India, scoring 1694 runs at an average of 47.05 with three hundreds and 10 half-centuries. He also featured in six T20 internationals and made 42 run in them.

Interestingly, the World Cup snubs gave Iceland Cricket the opportunity to troll Rayudu when they offered him permanent residency after Mayank Agarwal was named as Vijay Shankar's official replacement in the Indian squad on Monday.

Iceland Cricket put out a tongue-in-cheek tweet on Tuesday about how Mayank, who is the latest member to join the Indian team in England, has only three professional wickets at 72.33 and that Rayudu could play for them instead.